Various techniques are known for the treatment of pigmentary titanium dioxide, TiO.sub.2, in the rutile form with one or more hydrous oxides so as to achieve a high level of hiding power, gloss and dispersibility when the TiO.sub.2 is used in the formulation of industrial paints, i.e., of the type employed for automotive and appliance finishing as well as for coil coatings--all of which need a hard durable surface. Seidel U.S. Pat. No. 2,387,534, for example, illustrates the production of numerous hydrous oxide-treated TiO.sub.2 pigments. In the past the industrial paints have nearly all been based upon organic solvent systems. More recently, the waste disposal problems associated with such organic solvents have caused particular attention to be given to the development of aqueous-based or so-called "water reducible" industrial paint systems. A major difficulty of the latter systems has resided in the TiO.sub.2 component since most pigments which give a satisfactory combination of hiding power, gloss and dispersibility in an organic solvent-based paint system would give inferior results in most water reducible systems.